Age Appropriate Awake Windows & Help Understanding Sleep Cues

When exhausted parents reach out to me, one of the first questions I ask is about awake windows. How much awake time are they giving their child before offering a nap or bedtime? All too often, these awake windows are much too long. 

An overtired baby has a harder time calming, falling asleep and staying asleep. Being overtired is the #1 culprit for early morning wake-ups too. So how do you know if your baby is tired? Here are a few sleep cues to look for: 

Getting Sleepy: Baby may start being uninterested in toys or maybe even you; looking off into space and giving cues like red eyebrows. Start working on your nap/bedtime routine now to get them to sleep before they are overtired. 

Time For Bed: This is when you will see more signs like yawning, red eyes, and fussing. Now is the time to get your child in bed so they can fall asleep. Allow enough time so that you don't skip your regular bedtime routine. You can adjust and make it a bit shorter if needed, but always offer a consistent routine to help signal that it is bedtime. 

Overtired: Your baby may become inconsolable, show signs like red eyes or pulling at their ears. You may even see a burst of energy. This “second wind” is definitely a sign that they are overtired. When your baby is overtired, you may find that it takes longer to get your little one to settle and fall asleep. 

Still struggling to understand sleep cues?

Along with the sleep cues listed above, you may also use their age-appropriate awake windows as a guide to know when to offer their next sleep. During the first 4-5 months, I suggest following a routine rather than a strict schedule. Babies and children thrive on a routine, and you may notice things feeling easier once you have a good routine in place.

Here are some age-specific guidelines that I recommend:



0-3 months: The maximum awake time during the newborn stage is 60-90 minutes. This is often just enough time to change a dirty diaper, feed your baby, snuggle and change another dirty diaper before they doze off. Naps in the early months are often short and frequent. 

3-6 months: Naps should be offered after 1.5-2.5 hours of awake time. Most often this allows for three naps. Around the 5-month mark is when we start seeing naps consolidating from short snoozes to longer naps. 

6-9 months: You will start seeing your baby consolidate to two naps with 2.5-3 hours of awake time in between. 

9-13 months: At this age, naps should be offered after about 2.5-4 hours of awake time between each sleep. The shortest awake window should be offered in the morning while the longest awake window is between the last nap and bedtime. 

13-18 months: This is the most common time to transition to 1 nap with 4.5-6 hours of awake time. Make sure to offer an early bedtime if the nap is short to avoid them becoming overtired. 

18 months-3 years: Continue to offer a nap with 5-6 hours of awake time. Your child is usually ready to drop the nap altogether between 3-4 years old. It’s still important to offer a “quiet time” until they are able to go from morning wakeup to bedtime without major meltdowns. It’s also wonderful for parents and caregivers to have some downtime in the middle of the day, too. 

I am available to help you and your family manage awake windows and more. See my bio below — and I encourage you to follow me on Instagram for more tips.

Heidi Lovens 
Founder of Everyday Lovens
Certified Baby & Toddler Sleep Coach & Wellness Advocate 

I am a business owner, toddler mama to my 2-year-old son, Lennon, and wife to my busy and often sleep-deprived FireFighter husband. Sleep is so important in our household! My husband often comes home exhausted after a busy shift at the firehouse. This is why I created Everyday Lovens in 2015 — to help educate parents and caregivers on the fundamentals and importance of sleep. 

I specialize in gentile and holistic techniques to create healthy lifelong habits. Each plan and approach is customized to a family's unique needs. 

www.everydaylovens.com
IG @everydaylovens 

Our Suggested Products


69 comments
- Michelle

Hi Heidi!

I’ve been struggling for months to figure out how to get my daughter to sleep past 5/530. No matter what time I put her to bed, she never sleeps later than that. She’ll be 20 months and currently I keep her in her crib until 6am. She goes down for her first nap at 1215/1230, no fuss, asleep in minutes and usually sleep between 2/2.5 hrs. Nighttime, she just never seems tired, but I’ve tried putting her to sleep after 8 and she was still up at the same times. I’m at such a loss and so discouraged. I’ve tried everything! Any advice would be much appreciated.

Thank you!

- Jess

Hi,
I have an almost 3 month old who used to sleep great 5 hour stretch until we transitioned him to the pack and play with a mattress since my 2 year old has the crib still.
Now he is waking up after a 2 to 4 hours at the start then a half hour to hour after that until we wake up unless he sleeps on our chest (which I know is so dangerous) or I fall asleep while feeding and then try to lay him down and he wakes up again
How can we get him back to sleeping good? We tried swaddle transition sack around his tummy since he rolls onto one side and a zipadee zip since I thought it was a Moro reflex
Thanks!

- Jessica Dillon

My son is 22 months. He is waking up around 430 in the morning lately 😫 but he’s usually a 5 am waker. I’m having trouble figuring out wake windows and an appropriate time to pick him up in the morning. Any feedback appreciated!

- ANdrea

My 15 month old is on one nap, will only nap for about 1.5 hours typically sometimes will go for longer. Struggling to time it right as he usually wakes at 630, down for a nap at 11:30 then up for the rest of the day at 1. Would love for him to sleep in a little later or nap later so we don’t have to have early evenings to put him to bed at 630/7

- Ivy Dodge

We’ve been having issues with early morning wake ups since we transitioned our 19 month old to one nap several months ago. Oftentimes, she’ll wake up between 4:30-5:30 and not go back to sleep. We leave her in the crib until 6:00. She’s usually awake for 5.5 hours before her 1.5-2 hour nap. But we can’t seem to get the timing right between end of nap and bedtime. We’ve been using 5 hours, but many times she’ll roll around for 30-60 minutes before she finally falls asleep. We can’t tell if she’s over or under tired, which I believe is the cause of the early morning wake ups. Help!

  • <
  • 1
  • 10
  • 11
  • 12
  • 13
  • 14
  • >
Leave a comment
Please note, comments need to be approved before they are published.